Layers of Awesome in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

No fighting game in recent memory surprised me as much as Persona 4 Arena did when it burst onto the scene nearly two years ago. What could easily have been a sloppy, dialed-in crossover turned out to be an elegant collaboration, and the results were quite impressive. Happily, the sequel, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, is headed stateside, and after a few hours with it, I walked away surprised by just how much has been added.

Exit Theatre Mode

For starters, we’re getting six new characters, four of whom I was allowed to go hands-on with. Newcomer Sho Minazuki, who hasn’t been in any of the Persona RPGs, actually has two versions, much like Labrys before him. His Persona-less form actually changes his button layout to something akin to BlazBlue, where you have a light, medium, and heavy attack, and the fourth button is a special action, in this case a defensive stance that causes attacks to go straight through him. The Persona-toting version of Sho still totes dual katanas, but loses the dodge in favor of teleportation abilities for some crazy mixups, and attacks that drain life and resources from your opponents.

Persona 3’s Yukari Takeba makes heavy use of her bow and arrows, making her the purest zoning character in the cast yet. Like many archer-style characters in other fighters, she has command jumps to help her remain mobile even when on the attack.

Of them all, the bat-swinging Junpei Iori was my clear favorite: he’s a perfect example of the kind of theme-driven character design Arc System Works is known for. Every move involving his bat contributes to a baseball-style pitch-count display at the bottom of the screen. As he scores hits and walks, he puts runners on base...score 10 “runs” and he enters a buffed state called Victory mode, making him considerably more dangerous for the rest of the match. He’s just another example of how adept ArcSys is at creating unique mechanics to build characters around.

New characters aren’t all though. Interesting new systems have been implemented that open up the fighting in some really rewarding ways. For one is the ability to play as the Shadow version of almost every character. Veterans of the RPG series know that these are the character’s id-like alter egos, and a lot of care has been taken to reflect that in the presentation. Shadow Kanji’s voice, and win quotes for instance, show a full commitment to who Persona 4 made him out to be.

Mechanically speaking, Shadow versions are like a different “beat” or “groove” for the character. Their moves retain all the same properties, but many of their other attributes change. Shadow versions do slightly less damage, and can’t burst or go into awakening, but they get more health, always have access to their awakening super, and get to keep accumulated meter between rounds. Shadow frenzy mode replaces their lost burst, allowing for nearly unlimited chaining of special moves into each other. It’s a completely different way to play your favorite characters.

Every character has gotten at least one new move, like Yu’s ability to feint out of Raging Lion and go for a tricky cross-up. Probably the most important new info to absorb though, is how Fatal counters now work. In addition to having specific moves that result in the fatal state on counterhit, every character has moves that, if punished, will result in a fatal state regardless of what move they were punished by. This places a premium on matchup knowledge, and blows fatal combo possibilities wide-open.

I’m really excited by the direction Arc System works is taking here, and I can’t wait to sink my teeth in deeper in the coming months. For more on Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, keep checking back here on IGN.

Vincent Ingenito is IGN's third newest recruit, and third biggest MOBA fan. He also doesn't suck at fighting games. To hear him nerd out about them and other games, follow him on Twitter.